I Want You So Bad
by beautifulinsideandout
Summary: Scarlet is a new student at Hogwarts starting in the seventh year. Draco takes a liking to her when she joins Slytherin house and when he finds out who she is and how talented she is, but despite everything she is not interested in him.
1. Chapter 1: Welcome To Hogwarts

Chapter 1

As I approached the school I was in awe at how big it was compared to mine back in Australia. My school back home was about a tenth of the size of the school that I was now going to be attending called Hogwarts. It was already halfway through September so I had already missed the start of the school year by about 2 weeks, which was bad for me seeing as this was my last year at school and I was being transferred because my parents wanted to move. I really hope it doesn't take me too long to catch up on the schoolwork that I have missed.

When I got off the train at the platform there was a rather tall man standing there waiting from me. And from what I could tell he was part giant as there was no way a human could be that big and tall, unless they were a Metamorphmagus like me.

'You must be Scarlet Hunter. I am Rubeus Hagrid' Says the half giant.

'It's very nice to meet you.' I reply with a welcoming smile on my face.

'Well if you would like to come with me I will take you to the school and to meet the headmistress Professor McGonagall.'

He starts walking up a path that winds through the forest and I have to run to catch up with him so I don't get lost.

'I heard about the big battle here with Voldemort. I heard it was pretty bad and a lot of things were destroyed. Looks like everything got cleared up pretty well.' I state.

'Well we cleared it all up pretty quickly and we had plenty of time to do it as we had to close the school down while we fixed it all up and now its all done for the new year. So tell me where are you from?' asks Hagrid with a curious look on his face.

'I came form Australia. My parents decided they wanted a change so here I am for my last year at school.'

'Well I can tell you now you will love it here. Since the battle everyone has become very close, even the biggest rivals Slytherin and Gryffindor. And the Slytherins aren't as bad as they use to be but they still keep up the pure-blood reputation of the house. What are you by the way?'

'I'm pure-blood. And I am a descendant of the Black and Lestrange family. But my part of the family weren't death eaters. Well most of us weren't. A couple of my side of the family were taken to Azkaban, but my parents and I weren't death eaters.'

'Well that's good to know. Though with that family tree you'll probably end up in Slytherin. Which would be a shame, as you seem like you would make an excellent Gryffindor. You never know, you could turn out like Sirius Black and be in Gryffindor. What were the houses like where you came from?'

'The houses were pretty much the same as here. Slightly different names like Burma, Tobruk, Baker and Snyder, but the characteristics were very similar. I was in the house that was a mix of Slytherin and Gryffindor traits, but it was more closely linked to Slytherin and I was only in it because of my blood status and family.'

'Well no matter what house you are in I am sure you will make an excellent member of that house.' Says Hagrid before he opens the front doors into the castle.

At the moment it is very quiet and deserted. There are a couple of people in what appears to be the hall, but besides that the school is quiet and peaceful. I follow Hagrid through the castle and up various moving staircases and long corridors. As we pass classrooms a few people look as we pass. We come to a stop in front of an eagle statue and I hear Hagrid mutter something and a staircase is revealed. I quickly follow Hagrid up the stairs into a huge office.

Various paintings are hung up on the walls along with various bookshelves that hold a lot of books that I am dying to read. Behind the desk sits a lady with her hair pulled back into a tight bun and wearing dark green robes with hang of her thin frame. When she hears us enter she looks up at us and a smile spreads across her face.

'Hello Miss Hunter, I am Professor McGonagall the headmistress here. Welcome to Hogwarts.' She says as she walks towards us, extending her hand towards me.

I take her hand and shake it. 'It's nice to meet you to Professor McGonagall and thank you for letting me come here. This place looks amazing. It's a shame I am only here for one year.'

'Well we always have teaching positions available every once and a while. You could always come back and teach.'

'My dream is to be an Auror. But I'm sure I will find my way back here at some point in time after I leave.'

'Oh another Auror. Well judging from your grades I'm sure you'll make an excellent one. Now with you're sorting that will happen in a couple of hours at dinner in front of the whole school, and you will be sorted into Slytherin, Gryffindor, Ravenclaw or Hufflepuff. But for now you'll have to remain here as none of the students know about you yet and I like to keep things like this a surprise, especially seeing as you are our first ever student from another school starting this late in their studies.'

'I don't mind waiting here as long as I can read some of the books that adorn your bookcases.'

She just smiles and laughs at me. 'Of course you can read them. Though most of them are about Transfiguration, so I hope you like that topic.'

'Well I'm a Metamorphmagus and an Animagus so I love transfiguration. One of my best subjects actually.' I reply which makes he smile even more.

'Looks like you are going to make an excellent contribution to my transfiguration class then as tomorrow we start studying Metamorphmagi and Animagi in great detail'

'Well if you need to use me for examples and demonstrations I would be very happy to help you.'

'Thank you Scarlet. Now if you'll excuse me I have some work to do before tonight.' Says Professor McGonagall before walking back to her desk leaving me with a room full of books that I a dying to read, but unfortunately wont be able to read them all before tonight.

The thought of tonight makes me nervous. What if I don't fit in? What if no one likes me? The thought of which house I am going to be in scares me even more. I really hope that I don't get sorted purely because of my family and blood line.


	2. Chapter 2: Welcome To Slytherin

Chapter 2

As I make my way towards the Great Hall with Professor McGonagall I start to get more and more nervous every step I take. A few people who are making their way to the hall as well give me curious looks, as they have never seen me before. And these looks get worse when Professor McGonagall leads me right up the middle of the hall causing every single student to look at me. When we stand on the raised platform I hold my head up high to show that I am not scared or intimidated by their stares. I look around the hall and notice that the table on my far right a familiar boy about my age with a pointy face and almost white blonde hair is looking at me with a curious look in his grey eyes. When he sees me staring at him he winks and smirks at me.

When Professor McGonagall takes her place next to me now holding a hat, the hall falls quiet.

'Today for the first time in Hogwarts history, we have a new student joining us starting in the seventh year. She has just transferred here from Australia after here school was destroyed in one of the many battles that took place very recently. Please help her if she needs it and welcome her to the school and which ever house she is placed into'

Out of the corner of my eye I see Professor McGonagall raise that hat to put it on my head. The last time this happened to me I was eleven years old and in my first year of wizarding school.

'Well, well, well. Who do we have here? A descendant of the Black and Lestrange family. Well, looks like you automatically fit into Slytherin there, especially seeing as you are a pure-blood. Though you are very courageous, brave and also have a lot of Gryffindor traits. But you are also very cunning, sly, and ambitious and use things to your advantage. I know exactly where to put you.' Says the sorting hat.

I sit there for another minute in silence while the sorting hat tortures me by not telling it where it is going to out me.

''SLYTHERIN!' yells the hat.

Professor McGonagall takes the hat off my head and turns towards the table on the far right which seems very happy to have me in their house as they are cheering and clapping very loudly.

'Slytherin house, welcome your newest member, Scarlet Black Lestrange Hunter.' Says McGonagall.

The hall falls dead silent at the mention of my name. Even Slytherin house. People start to whisper and look at me weirdly. The Black family and Lestrange family was meant to have died out when Sirius Black and Bellatrix Lestrange died. But here I am, the last descendant from the Black and Lestrange family.

I quickly make my towards Slytherin house. Despite them being quiet now like everyone else, they seem even happier to have me in their house because of who I am. I make my way down the table to the emptiest spot I can find and sit by myself not wanting any attention, which I know I will not get as I can already see the blonde haired boy looking at me from further up the table where he sits with his group of friends.

The chatter quickly starts back up when the food appears on the tables in front of everyone distracting them from what has happened, but it doesn't stop them from looking at me and whispering about me, but there is one pair of eyes that stay on me the whole time. I don't need to look up to know that the boy with the blonde hair and grey eyes hasn't taken his eyes off me since I sat down. I'm glad he doesn't move to sit next to me because the last thing I need right now is for someone pestering me about who I am and my family, especially seeing as I am the last in my line as my parents aren't alive like everyone thinks they are. My parents are dead. And Voldemort is the one who killed them.

I'm glad that McGonagall gave me a tour of the castle when she finished her work early, because I do not want to have to ask someone how to get to the Slytherin common room. The only problem was the password. That was the only thing that I did not know. As I made my way to the common room with the rest of the Slytherins I saw the blonde haired boy fall into place beside me from the corner of my eye.

'Hi I'm Malfoy, Draco Malfoy.' Says Draco as he extends his hand towards me, which I ignore and shove away from me.

'Feisty. I like that in a girl.' He says with which I can guess is his trademark smirk as I have rarely seen him without since I first met him.

'I'm pretty sure you only like me because of who I am and what family I am from Malfoy.' I say as I shove him into the nearest wall. 'Just leave me alone Malfoy, I don't want anything to do with you.'

As I walk away I turn my head to see that Malfoy is staring at me. I quickly turn my head around and walk faster towards the corridor as I try to forget the blonde haired and grey eyed boy.


	3. Chapter 3: Metamorphmagi and Animagi

Chapter 3

Instead of just wearing plain black robes and tie, I now wore black and green robes, and a silver and black tie with my school uniform, which actually looks quite nice on me even though its not the most attractive uniform in the world. I decide to tie my long chocolate brown hair that reaches down to the top of my rib cage up in to a messy bun and let my side fringe hang down the left side of my face. Finally happy with how I look, I grab my bag and head towards to common room. When I get down there I find and eager Draco leaning against a chair who comes towards me and stands in front of me stopping me from going down to breakfast.

'Look, we got off on the wrong foot yesterday. I came across as a dickhead and tool who was only interested in you because of your family and who you are. Do you want to try being friends?'

I look at him skeptically, not sure if I should trust him or not. I mean his family did have a reputation for being a bit manipulative. Well all Slytherins did, which is why we all got along, and in a strange way all trusted each other. I look at him for another minute judging whether or not I should trust the boy standing in front of me who may I say is incredibly handsome and attractive.

'Ok Malfoy. We can try, but I am only giving you one chance.' I say before walking towards the door.

From behind me I hear what I think to be a silent cry of happiness before Malfoy catches up with me as we walk towards the great hall. I'm actually surprised at how well Malfoy and I actually get along and how much we have in common. By the end of breakfast I am already calling him Draco, but I still don't trust him completely. Despite me never meeting him to now, his reputation spread through out or family quickly. I wasn't related to him directly, but we were on the same family tree.

On our way to transfiguration people stared at us weirdly. Most people had heard about me having a go at Malfoy last night and showing that I didn't like him, so most people were very surprised to see me acting friendly towards him and sitting next to him in class.

'For the next couple of weeks in transfiguration we will be learning about human transfiguration and looking at Metamorphmagi and Animagi, and fortunately enough we have someone who is both of these in this very classroom.' Says McGonagall.

Everyone in the class looks around at each other trying to figure out whom this person is. Some people look at me but quickly shake their heads and look away.

'Scarlet can you please join me up here?' asks McGonagall.

The whole class has mixed expressions on their faces. Some of them have shock, others have confusion, and others have awe written on their faces as they watch me walk up the front.

'Hermione can you also join me up here.'

A confused looking Hermione slowly gets up and walks up to the front of the classroom and stands next to me.

'Now as well all know, Metamorphmagi can change their appearance at will. The extent of these appearance-altering abilities and the limits thereof are not entirely clear. They can change anything from height, eye colour, skin colour, age, hair colour, and if they are powerful enough can also change their gender, but some can only change their facial features and body shape to look like the opposite gender.'

'So a Metamorpmagi that looks like a guy could be a girl and vice versa?' asks a Ravenclaw.

'Yes that is right, but it would be very rare. Only witches or wizards who are Metamorphmagi and very experienced at changing their appearances can do it, and even if they are very experienced it is very hard to pull off, and can sometimes end badly. But we will look into that in more detail later on. But for the next lesson or two we will be looking at the actual transformations and the limits. So Scarlet would you please change your appearance to look like Hermione's.'

I turn towards Hermione and study her appearance. She's slightly thinner than me and nowhere near as curvy or big chested as I am. She is also a little bit shorter than me but not by much.

The class gasp in shock as they watch me body shift and morph into the girl standing next to me. And by the end of transformation, which only takes a couple of seconds, the class is whispering amongst themselves about me. The whispering gets even louder when I change back to myself.

Hermione quickly goes back to her seat when she realizes she isn't needed anymore.

'Scarlet do you mind letting the class asking to change your appearance and asking you questions?' asks McGonagall.

'No I don't mind.' I reply.

As soon as the words are out of my mouth people's hands are shooting up in the air to ask me to change my appearance. For the next ten or so minutes I am bombarded with requests from changing my mouth to look like a ducks, to making myself really tall and to what I looked like when I was smaller.

'Change yourself to look like me.' Says the all too familiar voice of Draco who has been very quiet up until now.

I don't even have to look at him to know what I have to change to and in a couple of seconds there are two Draco Malfoy's in the classroom. Malfoy actually looks shocked that I did it and is probably also shocked that I changed into him so quickly.

'Did you actually change your gender, or are you still female?' asks McGonagall.

'I can't change my gender. Like you said its very hard and it is extremely risky to do so as a lot of things can go wrong with it. I've attempted it once a couple of years ago, and I nearly got it, but it drains a lot of your energy when you try to. Your age also plays a factor in it. The older you are and the longer you have been changing your appearance the easier it is to do.

I've changed my appearance quite a bit in my life. I would constantly change me hair length and colour when I was younger and still do so now, and I occasionally change my body type, but I haven't changed my body type in about five years when I was about twelve or thirteen.'

'Interesting. Well now we are going to talk a look an Animagi which we talked about last lesson. And once again Scarlet will be showing us the transformation.'

The whole class jump as I change from myself into a fox, obviously not expecting me to jump towards them as I changed.

'You're a Metamorphmagi and can change your appearance to anything you want but your Animagus is a whimpy little wolf.' Says Malfoy while snickering.

I growl at him and before he knows what's happening I change into a wolf and jump onto his desk which makes him fall out of his chair onto the stone floor. The whole class erupts into laughter, which makes Malfoy turn into a very deep shade of red.

'As we can see witches and wizards who are Metamorphmagi and Animagi can change the animal they turn into at will depending on what animal they need to be at the time. And as we saw then when Mr Malfoy taunted Scarlet she threatened/scared him by turning into the big wolf from the small fox.'

The bell rang signalling the end of class and everyone left. I turned back into myself, grabbed my bag and left Malfoy who was still lying on the ground with his face red staring after me as if he had been poisoned by a love potion.


	4. Chapter 4: Quidditch

Chapter 4

The next couple of weeks were awkward for Draco and I. Ever since he insulted me in Transfiguration and I had embarrassed him by having a go at him by turning into a wolf, he had barely talked to me either because he was angry that I had embarrassed him or because he was now scared of me. My bet was that it was because I had embarrassed him, which the whole of the seventh year had found hilariously funny when it had gotten around what had happened. And now the whole school knew which had made it very hard for Draco to terrorise the first years who found the incident very funny.

In a way I was sad he wasn't talking to me, he and I had started to get along quite well, but it didn't take me long to make other friends in Slytherin. I also made friends with Hermione Granger the girl who I had turned into the day I embarrassed Draco. She and I met up every couple of days in the library to study and work together on assignments for potions, as we were both partners in that subject for group assignments. This didn't please the Slytherin's or Gryffindor's, but I didn't care what they thought, or about the rivalry that the two houses had. I was only here for a year and I would never be seeing the people here again unless we worked together, and I wasn't going to worry about stupid ancient rivalries that didn't interest me in the slightest. And Hermione didn't seem to care about them either, which is why we got along so well despite the fact we rarely talked out of classes or the library.

Hanging out with Hermione seemed to make Draco even angrier with me, and I was sure I was going to pay for this later on. But I wasn't afraid of him or what he would do to me. The only thing that scared about him was the control he had over the Slytherin's who all called him the 'Slytherin Prince', but from what I had been hearing, I had the same amount of influence on the Slytherin's that Draco did as I had occasionally heard first years whispering things like 'look, it's the Slytherin Princess'.

'Hey Scarlet!' yelled someone as they ran down the corridor to me.

I turned around to see Sebastian Harris the Quidditch captain running towards me as he came out of our Ancient Runes classroom.

'Hey Seb, what do you want?' I asked when he caught up with me.

I didn't know Sebastian very well, but I sat with him in all the classes we had together, in the great hall and in the common room when I chose to study in there.

'McGonagall told me the you use to play Quidditch when you were in Australia and from what she had heard you were very good at it.'

'Let me guess, you want me to join the Quidditch team as a Chaser?'

'Well, yeah. We are short one Chaser and none of the guys that tried out are very good, and none of the girls in our house are game enough to try out as the team has been all guys from about twenty or thirty years now and they are all scared that they are going to get hit by a bludger or something. So would you mind joining the team?' says Sebastian with his eyes pleading for me to join.

'Fine I'll join, but if the guys give me shit about being the only girl on the team all the time and make sexist jokes, I'm out.' I say before walking off to the library to join Hermione to work on our potions assignment.

'We have practise this afternoon at three on the pitch. Bring your broom the schools ones suck.' Yells Sebastian.

As I walk towards the library I can tell that someone is following me, but every time I turn around no one is there. It's probably just Peeves playing a joke on me, or some first years running to class. When I turn the corner I run into something tall and very hard. I look up to see Draco Malfoy with his signature smirk looking at me.

'So I hear you're on the Quidditch team.' He says as I storm past him.

'What's it to you Malfoy.' I say with venom dripping into my voice.

'Nothing, but you're going to get destroyed. Quidditch isn't for little girls like you.'

'I can take care of myself Malfoy. Or didn't you get that when I nearly attacked you the other week in Transfiguration when I jumped at you when I was a wolf.'

Malfoy's face reddens at the mention of what happened in Transfiguration all those weeks ago when I embarrassed him in front of the whole class.

'Yes I do remember that. All I'm saying is be careful.' Says Malfoy before he leans down kisses my forehead and walks back down the corridor away from the library leaving me standing in the corridor in shock at what he just did.

Never in my time here have I seen Malfoy do anything like that, and from what I have heard about him, he has never done anything like that in his life, not to his on and off girlfriend Pansy Parkinson who in my opinion looks like a pug. But he hasn't even known me for a month and he has acted like a prick towards me most of that time, and then randomly acts kind to me and kisses me on the forehead. Maybe the selfish arrogant git actually has a heart.


	5. Chapter 5: Training

Chapter 5

As I walked onto the Quidditch pitch to join the Slytherin team I could tell that some of them weren't happy to have a girl on the team, especially seeing as for the past thirty or so years it has been an unspoken tradition that no girls were to be on the team. But I could also tell that they were happy that the girl was me, rather than somebody else. I could tell that Draco seemed very very genuinely happy that I was on the team, and it was rare to see Draco genuinely happy. As I approached him and Sebastian, Draco had a big grin spread across his face instead of his trademark smirk.

'Hey you actually came.' Said Sebastian who was very happy that I had come.

'Of course, I said I would come didn't I. I don't go back on my word.' I reply.

'Well come on, I'll introduce you to the team and then I'll put you through a fake trial match to see what you can do.' Says Sebastian before leading me over to the rest of the guys.

I learnt that the rest of the team was made up of mostly seventh years and sixth years and consisted of Sebastian (chaser), Draco (seeker), me (chaser), two sixth years called Dylan Coles (beater) and Bradley White (beater), and two seventh years called Matthew Kleindon (chaser) and Harry White (keeper).

Sebastian soon split us up into two teams. On my team there was Sebastian, Me, Dylan and the other team was made up of Matthew, Draco who changed to a chaser, Bradley and Harry. There was no keeper on our team, but when the other team got the ball Harry would change to our team momentarily to act as our keeper.

The boys had obviously under estimated my abilities on a broom and as a chaser because as soon as the quaffle was thrown into the air I had caught it in a matter of seconds. I quickly swerved around Draco and Matt as they tried to get the ball off Seb and I as we passed the ball between us with ease. Bradley also had a hard time of hitting the bludgers at me because by the time he had hit it in the direction I was going I would swerve off in another direction.

By the time we had finished my trial and landed on the ground my team had won by a huge margin. We had scored two hundred points while Draco's tea had scored ten points.

'Well I think it is safe to say that Gryffindor won't be getting that cup this year.' Says Bradley who at the beginning wasn't happy about a girl joining the team and was now over the moon that I was on the team.

'Yeah, and seeing as they don't have Potter or Weasley on the team winning will be a lot easier.' Says Matt.

'Well they still have Ginny who was the best chaser in the whole school, but I think Scar here is going to give her a run for her money.' Says Draco with another rare grin on his face as he puts his left arm around my shoulder and pulls me into a one sided hug.

We all headed back to the change rooms with the boys all in high spirits about having a good chance at beating Gryffindor for the first time in a while. As I head back up towards the castle I hear Draco calling my name. I slow down automatically so he can catch up to me.

'Wow, you're a really good chaser.' He says when he catches up.

'Wow, and you just gave me a compliment. That's got to be the first one you've ever given.' I say with sarcasm heavy in my voice.

I look up to see the he looks hurt at my comment. Why would Draco Malfoy, the Slytherin Prince and the most selfish guy in school be hurt by me?

'I guess I deserved that.' He steps in front of me and puts his arms on my shoulders stopping me and holding me in place. I try to get away but he's too strong for me and my attempt to get away is pointless. 'Look, I know I've already said this, but I am sorry. I shouldn't have ignored you after what happened in Transfiguration when you embarrassed me in front of the whole class and then the whole school. Just give me another chance. Please.'

I look up into the eyes of the blonde haired boy standing in front of me and I can't help but melt as his grey eyes stare into mine pleading for me to give him a second chance. I can tell that his eyes scream that he really wants to make this right and be friends again, and maybe something more.

I step back from his grasp and his hands fall to his sides. 'I don't go back on my word Malfoy. I said I would give you one chance. And I did, and you ruined it. I'll see you around' I say before once again leaving the blonde haired, grey eyed and amazingly attractive Slytherin prince standing alone watching me leave with sad eyes.


	6. Chapter 6: Gifts

Chapter 6

Every time I saw Malfoy he always seemed to have a sad look to his eyes, especially when he looked at me. I felt bad about what I had said to him after Quidditch practice two days ago, but I had already given him a chance and he had blown it.

As I walked up the stairs to bed, I couldn't wait to fall asleep. Sebastian had just put us through a very demanding training session where he had not only made us do a lot of flying and playing a match like we did in my first training session, he also made us do running laps around the pitch and sprints from one end to the other where we all had to race each other, and then he also made us do fitness training with push ups, squats, a load of stretches which had stretched muscles I never knew I had, and made us climb a rope he had charmed to suspend in the air as we climbed it. Though despite how sore and tired I was, I also felt very accomplished. I hadn't beaten any of the boy's fitness wise, but I had beaten them in running. Every time we would start a new lap around the pitch after a thirty second rest I would shoot off at the start and by about fifteen seconds in I would be nearly fifty metres ahead of them all.

After a very needed shower I went to climb into bed, but noticed there was something sitting on my pillow just as I got out of the bathroom. I walked over to my bed and picked up a little emerald green box with a black and silver ribbon around it. There was also a letter underneath the box with my name written in scarlet ink.

_Dear Scarlet,_

_I am sorry. I know you said you would only give me one chance,_

_but please give me another one. I promise you won't regret it._

_Draco_

I was tempted to just throw the emerald green box at the wall, but I was curious to see what Malfoy had sent me to try and win me over. I opened the box to revel a silver ring the a snake cut into it, a silver chain with a emerald no bigger than my pinky cut into the shape of a tear drop hanging off it, and a box of chocolate frogs.

A small smile crept onto my face as I looked at the objects inside the box. Malfoy had obviously remembered me telling him I had a fondness for chocolate frogs and that my favourite colour of jewellery was silver and that emeralds were my favourite stone. But despite the fact he had remembered all this from nearly two months ago I still wasn't going to give him another chance.

The next morning I decided to wear the necklace and ring that Malfoy had given me. As I walked into the hall I saw his face light up as when he saw I was wearing the necklace and ring he gave me, obviously thinking I had given him a second chance because as soon as I sat down he moved to sit next to me.

'What do you want Malfoy?' I ask him.

He gives me a confused look. 'You're not giving me a second chance?'

'I told you I wasn't going to.' I say turning my attention to my breakfast.

'But you're wearing the necklace and ring I sent to you.' He says with sadness in his eyes.

'Just because I am wearing them doesn't mean I've given you a second chance.'

'Then why are you wearing them?'

'Because I really like them and I think they are nice.' I say before once again getting up and leaving a sad looking Malfoy alone again.

Just as I get out of the hall I hear someone running after me and two seconds later Malfoy joins me on my way to class. He continues this for the rest of the day wherever I go, mainly because he is in all of my classes and gets all the same spares as me. I am tempted to just go sit in the girls toilets during one of my spares just to escape him and study alone, but I was sure that after a while Malfoy would come in and join me despite him not being allowed in them.

The only time I escape him is when I go upstairs to the girls dormitories to shower and go to bed. When I walk out of the shower in a red singlet and black gym shorts I see there is another present on my bed in another emerald green box with a silver ribbon and a letter with my name on it in scarlet ink.

_Scarlet,_

_Please give me another chance._

_- Draco_

I open the box to see a silver charm bracelet with a single emerald green heart charm hanging off it. I slam the box close, grab the letter I dropped on the bed and storm down the stairs to the common room. Its nearly empty now but there are still a couple of seventh and sixth years down here along with a blonde haired boy. I march over to him and drop the box on his head. He looks up at me with shock.

'I can't be bought Malfoy. I am not some girl that you can give expensive gifts to so I'll have sex with you whenever you want.' I yell at him.

'I know your not.' He replies calmly.

'Well then stop sending me expensive jewellery and letters written in scarlet ink asking me to give you another chance.' I turn to storm away but he grabs my arm and pulls me back to him and kisses me right in front of everyone in the common room which was now the whole of Slytherin as the ones who went to bed had come down when they had heard the yelling. Slytherins love a good fight.

I couldn't help but kiss him back no matter how hard I tried. As soon as his hand grabbed my arm and his lips met mine, my skin had felt like it was set on fire as soon as we had made contact. It took me a while to push him away. And when I did there was his signature smirk on his face. But before it could stay there for longer than a few seconds my right hand came up and slapped him in the face erasing the smirk immediately. I stormed up the stairs ignoring Malfoy who kept calling my name.

That night before I went to sleep he was all I could think about. And that kiss. The kiss that had literally made me feel like I was on fire. The kiss I couldn't stop thinking about. That night in my sleep I dreamt about Draco Malfoy, and that amazing kiss.


	7. Chapter 7: Chances

Chapter 7

For the next two weeks every night I would dream about Draco Malfoy, and I would wake up to my hand searching the bed for him. I would also spend most of my free time, which wasn't a lot, thinking about him He had this strange effect over me that no one else did, and an effect that no guy had ever had on me.

Despite the fact I had yelled at him for sending me presents like I was some girl that he could sleep with, he still sent me a present each day. Every night when I came up from the common room and came out of the shower into my dorm, there would be a present on my pillow, in an emerald green box with a black and silver ribbon along with a letter written in scarlet ink. The present was never there before I had my shower, so he must follow me up to my room every night to lay it on my pillow when I was showering. I wasn't keen on going back on my word, but I started acting nicer towards him, especially when Slughorn changed partners for potions and I was paired with him for the rest of the year.

In classes I would occasionally catch him looking at me, and when ever I got hurt by a bludger in Quidditch he would always be the first one at my side to help me, though it had only happened twice and on those two occasions the bludgers had been jinxed, and both times Malfoy vowed to hunt down who had done it. And the next day I had found two fifth year Gryffindors hanging from the ceiling of the entrance to the hall.

It was now getting colder and closer to winter and there was one thing on everyone's minds, well mainly the girls. McGonagall had announced they would be having a Christmas Ball on the night before we went home for Christmas, and that the theme was to be masquerade. In the corridors most of the younger girls were talking about what they were wearing and whom they were going with. But for the sixth and seventh years they barely had time to think about any of that at the moment as we were getting lots of homework and assignments, along with the constant study we were doing.

'Thought I would find you here.' Came the familiar voice of Draco as he approached me.

As he walked over to the table I was sitting at near a window, I couldn't help but smile at him. It was becoming harder and harder for me to resist him and not give him another chance, but in a way I already had given him another chance as we were back to almost acting like friends again who flirted and taunted each other constantly.

'So who you going to the Christmas ball with?' he asks me as he gets out his charms book.

I look up at him curiously. 'No one.'

'No ones asked you?' he asks sounding shocked.

'No, people have asked me but I've just said no to them is all.' I state calmly.

'So you're not going to go?'

'No I am going to go, but the right person just hasn't asked me to go. And even if I don't choose to go with someone I will still go. I don't care what people think if I don't turn up with someone.'

Draco is silent for a little while and I look up to see that he looks nervous. A rare emotion for him, and very rare for a Malfoy to have.

'What's wrong Draco?' I ask as I reach my hand across the table and place it one his.

He seems to calm at my touch and relaxes a bit and then looks me in the eye. 'Would you consider going to the ball with me?' He says as his voice shakes slightly.

Inside I was jumping with joy, my heart was beating fast and my mouth curled upwards slightly. I look up into his eyes with look scared and smile fully. 'I'll go with you. But this doesn't mean I'm giving you another chance.'

He smiles immediately and the scared, nervous boy I saw moments ago is gone and replaced by a happy and confident Draco.

'There's also something else I want to ask you.'

'What do you want to ask me?' I say as I lean over the table towards him.

He leans towards me and grabs my other hand in his. I got to pull in back but his just grips onto it tightly. 'Well I told my parents about you and they would very much like to meet you as they use to know your parents when they originally lived here. So what I want to ask you is if you would like to come and stay with my family over the Christmas break instead of staying here alone and not having anywhere to go.'

I quickly rip my hands away from his and stare at him in shock.

'How do you know I have nowhere to go?' I say as my voice shakes with nerves.

'You're parents are dead aren't they? And you're the last in your line. I was just assuming you had no family to go to.'

'How do you know my parents are dead? No one besides me knows that.'

'You're distantly related to me, my mother and father knew almost as soon as it happened via a family tree in our house that is enchanted to add new members when they are added to the family and then when they are dead turn their pictures grey. But don't worry your not related to me directly. You're one of my very very very distant cousins, so you're barely related to me at all, so there's no problem in dating me sometime in the future.'

I glare at him for a split second before my face turns sad.

'Look, just come and stay with my family for the break. I mean in a way we are you're family. We may be very distant family that is barely related, but we are still family. And I think that getting away form here for two weeks may be good for us. You'll get to see what I'm really like and may even consider giving me another chance.'

'Ok I'll come and stay with your family for the holidays. But there's no promise that I will be giving you another chance.'

'I know, but there's always that small chance that you will.' He says before giving me a half smile and striding out of the library leaving me alone to do my assignments.


	8. Chapter 8: Christmas Ball

Chapter 8

As I looked around the corner into the entrance to the great hall I was shocked at how beautiful all the girls looked, and suddenly felt very plain and boring compared to them in my dark scarlet red dress made of chiffon material and silk straps the crossed over my bare back. The dress hugged my curves and billowed out into a flowing skirt that went to the floor and had a cut up the middle to about an inch or two above my knee so the skirt flowed out when I walked and showed of my legs and the black heels I wore that had ribbons that were tied into a bow just below my knee. My hair was pulled up into a messy bun with my bangs falling to each side of my face. I had changed my hair from its usual plumb and chocolate colour to a dark chocolate colour that made my natural light blue eyes stand out a lot more than they did, which was partly due to the black eye liner I had put around them to make them stand out behind the black and silver metal lace mask that I also wore.

As I walked up the last two steps into the entrance hall everyone turned to look at me, causing my cheeks to turn a light shade of pink that was barely noticeable in the candle lit entrance hall. The only person who wasn't looking was Draco who had his back turned towards me as he talked to some of his friends. Draco finally turned around when he realized his friends were no longer paying attention to him and his mouth literally hit the floor when he saw me and then his mouth turned into one of those rare genuine happy grins that I only seemed to bring to his face. As he strode over to me I noticed that he looked quite good in a suite. His suit hugged his body and you could easily see that Draco was quite muscular after all those years of playing Quidditch and working out.

'You like what you see?' he asks me with a smirk.

'I might. Do you like what you see?' replying with a smirk just like his.

He looks me up and down and his eyes linger where the dress hugs my curves, which are normally hidden by the school uniform. 'Oh I definitely like what I see. Shame I cant have it.'

'For now.' I say before walking past him leaving him starting where I was with a shocked expression before quickly catching up to me as I walk into the hall with everyone else.

'So you're considering giving me another chance?'

'Lets just see how things go at your house these holidays. And if I feel like I can give you another chance, we shall see where things go after that.'

I hear Draco say a very happy and excited 'yes' under his breath obviously thinking I wouldn't be able to hear what he said. As the first song started he grabs my hand, making me feel like I am on fire, and pulls me onto the dance floor to join everyone else for the first dance of the night. I had never seen Draco dance before, and he was very good. He glided around the dance floor with me like he had been doing this all his life. Which I suspected he had been with a family like his who was very wealthy and very famous. In most of the dances in the wizarding world the partners were meant to be barely touching each other, but Draco seemed to have abandoned that and was holding me tightly and very close to him.

I looked around while we were dancing to notice that most of the girls were glaring at me as they danced past us.

'Why are all the girls that pass us glare at me?'

Draco just laughs and shakes his head. 'It's obvious isn't it. They are jealous of you.'

'Why are they jealous of me?' I ask confused.

'Well besides the fact that you're dancing with one of the most popular guys in this school, you are the most beautiful girl in this room, and that is why they are glaring at you and shooting daggers at you with their eyes. They hate the fact that they tried so hard to be the best looking girl here, and you walked in, barely trying and you wipe their efforts off the floor.'

At first I think he is lying to me to get on my good side and give him another chance, but I am good at picking up on lies, and as I look into his eyes, I see no trace of a lie in them. I start to blush when I realize that he had called me beautiful and I start to look down to hide it. I hear him laugh and I look up at him with a confused expression on my face.

'Wow I just me Scarlet Black Lestrange Hunter, one of the most feared girls in this school and the Slytherin Princess blush. That's got to earn me some kind of reward.'

I just roll my eyes and he laughs again. I realize that tonight is the first night I have heard him laugh in all the time that I have been here.

'What's wrong?'

'I just realized that tonight is the first time I have heard you laugh. That's got to earn me some kind of reward.'

'It probably does seeing as I haven't laughed in about two years. So what do you want your reward to be?' he asks with a smirk as he stops our dance as the song ends and pulls me closer to him and lowers his head to mine.

My hands and legs react before I know what I'm doing. I push myself out of his grip and walked off the dance floor and out of the hall and into the courtyard outside the entrance hall.

Why the hell did I do that? He was going to do the one thing I had been hoping would happen all night and the one thing I had been wanting since that night I had yelled at him for sending me presents. Why did I push him away and run off? I am such an idiot. Now he's going to hate me.

I hear footsteps behind me and turn my head slightly to see Draco walking towards me and stand next to me and put his arm around me, resting his hand on my bare back.

'I'm sorry for what I did back there in the hall. I shouldn't have gone to do it. I'm sorry for freaking you out.'

'There's no need to be sorry Draco.' I see him look at me confused out of the corner of my eye. I turn around so I am facing him. 'I'm the one that should be sorry for what I did.' He goes to object but I silence him by placing a finger on his lips. 'I don't know what came over me. I panicked and I reacted before I knew what I was doing, and I wish I hadn't done what I did-'. Before I can finish what I am saying Draco pulls me into a very intense and passionate kiss.

He pulls me tightly against his body and his arms lock me like a vice, his hands on my waist holding me in place while his tongue slides across my lips making me shiver and open my mouth to let him in, making me moan, which causes him to smirk. One of my hands instinctively goes up to his neck and into his blonde hair, while the other slides under his untucked shirt and slides along the very prominent muscles of his stomach. He pulls back and looks me in the eyes, and I can see that his are full of happiness and lust

'So, you going to give me that chance yet?' he asks.

'I'll think about it.' I say with a smile before pulling him down towards me into another very passionate and intense kiss.


	9. Chapter 9: Under A Spell

Chapter 9

On the train ride back to London, Draco and I shared a compartment alone and he slept on my shoulder. During the train ride I couldn't help but laugh as I remembered everyone's shocked faces as Draco and I walked into the great hall hand in hand like we were a couple early that day for breakfast before boarding the train home. In a strange way we were, but we weren't officially going out. He just acted like we did. Holding my hand, kissing me on the cheek and fore head and putting his arm around me. I didn't mind him doing any of those things, as I liked them. Made me feel like I actually had someone in my life who cared for me for once in my life. I know in a way I was kind of leading Draco on as I still hadn't given him another chance, but I already knew I was going to, but I was going to wait till New Years or Christmas Day to tell him. And letting him do the little things like holding my hand, it seemed to make him happier as well.

Suddenly I am being shaken and open my eyes to see Draco looking down at me with a smile as I lay in his lap. Obviously a short time after leaving Hogwarts I also fell asleep like Draco and he had woken up and put me in his lap.

'Have a good sleep did we?' he asks.

'Yeah I did, until you woke me up.'

'I'm sorry.'

'I was kidding. But I did have a good sleep, though I don't remember falling asleep.' I say sleepily.

'You feel asleep about half an hour into the trip.' He says as he pulls us both out of our seats and leads me off the train.

When we get onto the platform a woman who Draco partly resembles embraces him immediately, and I soon realize that the women is his mother Narcissa, who speaks very highly of. After a couple of minutes she lets go of Draco and turns to me.

'You must be the lovely Scarlet Hunter I have heard so much about. Its nice to finally meet you.' She says as she gives me a quick hug.

'Looks like you were being modest when you were saying how beautiful she is Draco. She is absolutely stunning. I wouldn't be surprised if you were part Veela.'

Out of the corner of my eye I see Draco turn a very bright shade of red at his mothers words. After we gather our trunks, Draco insists on taking my stuff on his trolley as well and before I can object he is already walking away with both of our trunks on his trolley, and I have to run for a little bit to catch up.

'You seem to have my Draco under a spell. Every time I talk to him he can't stop talking about you. I don't think there hasn't been one conversation since the beginning of the school year that hasn't had you in it.' Says Narcissa as we walk out of the station.

I look down and blush at what Narcissa is telling me. I knew Draco fancied me and was very interested in me, but I didn't know it had been since he had first met me. Though in a way I already knew that as Draco had always been hanging around me and had taken an interest in me the first night I was at Hogwarts. Though I was sure that fascination at first was because I was in Slytherin and because of who I was and the family I am from, because as far as everyone else was concerned, the line of blacks had ended when Sirius had died a couple of years ago.

'Really? He's been talking to you about me for nearly half a year?'

'Yes he has. I must admit though his interest in you at first was because of your name. But then he got to know you and what you were like after that first day of classes with you and his interest in you drifted off from who you are. If I hadn't seen what a love potion does to someone I would have thought he was under the influence of one.'

'Well he is definitely not under the influence of a love potion. I wouldn't have the heart to do that to someone. Making them love someone by force. Doesn't seem right.' I say in a sad tone.

'Well you are definitely different from most Slytherins that I know. You're very kind, caring, brave and courageous. I'm guessing you were almost sorted into Gryffindor.'

'I nearly was, but my family and other attributes took over and the hat put me in Slytherin. Which in a way I'm glad it did.'

'Because you met Draco?' She asks with a smile on her face.

I can't help but smile back when I reply. 'That's one of the reasons. Though if you asked me that about three months ago I would have said something along the lines of no.'

'Yes I heard about that. But don't let that put you off Draco. He can be like his father sometimes, but normally, he is a very nice person and nothing like the usually arrogant and cocky guy you see at school.'

'He's not like that much anymore. I think he learnt that pissed me off most of the time. But lately in the past month or two, I haven't really seen that cocky and arrogant guy.'

'Well like I said, you have put him under a spell. Your not part Veela by any chance?'

'No definitely not part Veela in any way as far as I know. But I don't know my family tree very well mainly because I wasn't part of the official Black family as my line was kind of started when one of the Black women had an affair.'

'Well I'll be able to help you learn about your family. I'm sure Draco told you about our family tree.'

'Yes he did.'

'Well when he learnt about you, you sprung up on our tree as you were now known to our family. So I'm guessing when you come to ours, your part of the family will spring up as well before your parents. Now come along, we better not keep Draco waiting for us much longer. I'm sure he wants to get home.'


	10. Chapter 10: Family Tree

Chapter 10

'And this is your room.' Says Draco as he opens the door to a very big room.

The furniture in the room is all black and made of wood, except for the bed, which is made of metal. The rooms are ironically painted scarlet red and the sheets on the bed are made of silk and match the walls.

'I'm guessing you asked your mum to change the colours of the walls?' I ask.

'How did you know?' he asks as he smiles at me and leans against the doorway.

'Well you seem to have a habit of writing me letters in scarlet ink so it's not too hard to guess you had some say in this.'

'Looks like I need to be a bit sneakier.' He walks over to me and grabs my hand. 'Come on, there's something I want to show you.'

He leads me out of the spare room and down the hall, down the very large staircase and into what Narcissa had said was the family room when she gave me a brief tour when we arrived. As I look walk around the room I look at all of the pictures that cover three of the four walls. Some of the photos I couldn't identify who the people were but after a little while I started seeing Sirius Black and Bellatrix Lestrange. On the last wall was adorned with just Narcissa, Lucius and Draco Malfoy, but mostly Draco. It was interesting to see how much Draco had changed over the years. For a long time Draco's blonde hair was sleeked back and pulled away from his face, and from what I could tell was like that until very recently as there were few photos of him now with his hair hanging in his face. In my opinion Draco looked a lot better with his hair messed up and hanging in his face. It made him look a lot happier and nicer, instead of sinister and mean when he had his hair sleeked back. I can't help but smile at the photos of Draco, especially the ones of when he was only a couple of years old and was trying to fly a small broom.

'What are you laughing at?' He asks as he comes up behind me and wraps his arms around my waist, pulling me against him.

'I was laughing at you when you were younger and trying to fly a broom. You were very cute when you were younger.'

'You don't think I'm cute now?' he asks, and I can tell he has a smirk on his face.

'Well I wouldn't use the word cute, but I would use attractive, handomse and possibly sexy.'

'Sexy hey?'

'Don't let it go to your head Malfoy.'

'Too late.' He says and I shake my head.

I turn to the last wall and see a very large family tree covering it, and at the top of the wall it says '_The Black Family Tree'. _I quickly find my parents and I as we are very separate from the rest of the tree and not joined to anyone else. I reach my hand out and touch the wall where my parents are on it, and as soon as I touch it my family line starts to grow. My grandparents appear, then my great grandparents and so on until the tree stops growing when it joins up with one of the original Black family members. The first ever Sirius Black. Most of the rumors were true about how my line started, but the first ever Sirius had never been married in his life. So my family line never technically started from an affair. It probably started with a girl he wasn't allowed to be with, so he rebelled and had a secret family with them. My theory was probably right because right next to his face at the top of the tree was a burn mark were a hex had just missed it by mere inches. I also realize that the Lestrange in my name is actually not needed, as there is no one in my line who married a Lestrange.

'Looks like you're not a Lestrange after all. You're just Scarlet Black-Hunter. And to be perfectly honest I much prefer that then when it had the Lestrange part in it.' Draco whispers in my hair, his breath tickling my neck.

'Yeah, I prefer it to. Sounds a lot nicer. And to be honest I didn't want to have a direct link to Bellatrix, but in a weird way I do as she is a Black as well.'

'And so am I. Well partly.'

'Well you two aren't directly related to each other though. You may come from the same family, but you're barely related.' Says Narcissa as she joins Draco and I and puts her arm around Draco.

'Well that's good then.' Whispers Draco in my ear so that only I can hear it, though I am sure Narcissa heard it to as I see a faint smile on the edge of her lips when I look at her.

'Well I'll leave you two to it. I have to get some things ready for tonight when Lucius gets home from his trip for dinner. I hope you brought something nice to wear Scarlet as it will be a formal occasion even though it will only be us four.' Says Narcissa as she almost glides out the door.

'I really like your mother. She's very welcoming.' I say as Draco and I head back up to the bedrooms.

'Yes she is. Though she is being more welcoming than other times, and I'm sure that's because she knows how fond I am of you.'

'That's probably true, but she seems very fond of me as well. Though I'm sure that is because of you.'

He laughs and nods. 'Probably. Well I'm going to go sleep for a little while. I'll see you in a couple of hours.' He says before leaning down and kissing my fore head and walking down the hallway to his bedroom.


	11. Chapter 11: Lucius Malfoy

Chapter 11

I watched as Draco closed his bedroom door and saw the light go out as he went to sleep. I walked back to my room to take a shower before the dinner tonight so my hair would be dry by then. The temperature in the Malfoy Manor was very warm compared to outside, and was warm enough to wear a singlet and shorts comfortably without getting cold. As I come down the stairs I see Narcissa walk quickly out of the kitchen and towards the fireplace, and vanishes amongst green flames. I continue down the stairs and go towards the kitchen to get a glass of water.

'Well, you must be Miss Scarlet.'

I turn around to see a man standing in the doorway to the drawing room staring at me. At first I slightly mistake him for Draco, but then I realize that he is far too old to be Draco, and his hair is a lot longer than Draco's as well.

'I'm Lucius Malfoy, Draco's father.' He says as he extends his hand to me.

I walk over and place my hand in his and he lifts it up to his mouth and kisses the top of my hand. 'Nice to meet you Mr Malfoy.' I say.

'You're just like Draco said you were. Charming, well mannered, polite, intelligent and beautiful. I see why you have him so infatuated. If I was his age and wasn't in love myself, I'm sure I would be just like my son right now.'

At first I'm a little creeped out, but I realize that this is the Malfoy way of being nice, even though it can seem a little creepy if you're not use to it.

'Thank you Mr Malfoy.'

'Please call me Lucius. I mean we are practically family, even though we are barely related. Though I'm sure we will be closely related in good time my dear.'

'And why would you think that?'

'Well Draco loves you very much, and you seem to have a fondness for him. You may not love him the way he loves you just yet, but you will in time. You just have to give him a chance and see where things go.'

'Well as I am sure you know I have certain trust issues.'

'Yes and I do. But just because he betrayed your parents, doesn't mean Draco, Narcissa or I are going to betray you.' He puts his hands on my shoulders and looks me directly in the eye. 'You have made Draco so happy. This is the happiest I have seen him, and I know you know that Scarlet. And I'm also sure this is the happiest you have ever been besides from when you were very little. I saw you when you were little and you were always happy, and I can see that the way your parents treated you when you got older has changed you, but not for the worst. You have grown into a strong, confident women who will stand up for what she believes in no matter what the consequences. And I'm sure you suffered those consequences many, many times. Draco is like that now, but before and just did what he was told and didn't stand up for what he believed in and what he thought was right. He sees that in you. And its one of the many reasons he is drawn to you. But he won't intentionally hurt you. He has seen to many people suffer and get hurt. And what is wrong with just letting everything go giving him a chance? What's the worse that could happen? And even if the worse happened I'm sure you would survive it.' He lets go of my shoulders and turns to walk back to his desk in the middle of the room.

'Lucius, how do you know what happened to my parents?' I ask.

He turns to look at me with a glum expression on his face. 'I was unfortunately in his closest circle. One of the ones he trusted the most. I hope this doesn't change your opinion of me.'

'It doesn't. You did the right thing in the end despite the consequences of what could happen to you and your family.'

'Well I'm glad to hear that. There's one more thing I want to ask you. How did you survive?'

'One of the perks of being a Metamorphamagus and an Animgus. I can turn into any animal I want to. That's how I survived when he came for my parents and I.' I say before walking away and up the stairs. As I turn to go down to my room, I see a glimpse of blonde hair near Draco's bedroom door out of the corner of my eye.


	12. Chapter 12: Dinner and Death

Chapter 12

Luckily I had brought my dress from the Christmas ball with me for the holidays incase something like this came up. But instead of the dress being scarlet red I changed the colour of the dress to a dark blue. As I came out of my room, Draco came out of his and we met at the top of the stairs.

'Wow, you look beautiful.' He says.

'Thank you. You don't look too bad yourself.' I say before walking away.

'Don't I get a word like sexy, handsome or attractive?'

'No because it will go to your head just like the last time I said something like that.'

'It didn't go to my head.'

I turn to him and look at him with a 'you're kidding me' look and roll my eyes at him.

'Ok, maybe a tiny bit.' He says before taking my hand and leading me towards the dinning room where Narcissa and Lucius are waiting for us at the table.

Draco and I take our seats across from Narcissa and Lucius who smile at us as we walk in. I quickly realize this is mainly because Draco and I are holding hands. After I sit down I look up and see Lucius looking at me. I can tell he's trying to ask me if I have given Draco that chance and I slightly shake my head. Lucius looks disappointed at first but then he smiles as if he knows that I am going to give him that chance.

'You look lovely tonight Scarlet.' Says Narcissa as Lucius pours as all some wine.

'She always looks lovely.' Says Draco.

'Thank you Narcissa. You look very lovely as well.' I reply as I slightly blush at Draco's comment

'I must agree with Narcissa, you look lovely. You looked especially lovely and beautiful at the Christmas Ball at Hogwarts. Though I am sure the photos I saw didn't do you any justice at all. I would have loved to have been there to see you both.' Says Lucius as he takes his seat across from me.

Draco squeezes my hand underneath the table and smiles at me as I once again blush slightly at all the comments that are being thrown at me.

'Now Draco tells me you are quite a talented witch Scarlet.' Says Narcissa.

'Does he?'

'Oh yes he does. He also mentioned that you are a Metamorphagus and an Animagus. That's an interesting combination. Guess you would get some extra perks out of that.'

'Yeah you do. I mean being one of the only Animagus' that can change the animal you can turn into can be helpful at times when you need to get out of a tight situation.'

'Yes that would be very helpful. You will have to show me what you can do some time.'

'Well maybe one day before I go back to school I could show you Narcissa.'

'That would be lovely.'

Just then the dinner is brought out and our conversation stops as we start eating the lovely dinner the elves have prepared for us. During the whole dinner Draco either holds my hand, which makes it difficult to eat, or has his arm around me with his hand on my waist.

'What do you want to be when you leave school Scarlet?' asks Lucius.

'I want to be an Auror. They've always fascinated me and their job never seems to get boring.'

'Well I think you would make an excellent Auror. Draco also wants to be an Auror as well.' States Narcissa.

'Really?' I ask turning to Draco.

'Yes. It's a very recent choice, but it is one I am willing to stick to. People will be surprised by my choice, but I don't care. It's what I want to do now.' He says.

'Well you will both make excellent Auror's. Have you heard about a new program they are offering in the Auror program?' asks Lucius.

Draco and I both shake ours heads.

'Well next year they are offering to send first year Aurors in training to Durmstrang to study there for a year to get a further understanding of the Dark Arts as Durmstrang specialize in that area.'

'Isn't it risky sending Aurors there? I mean most of the people we would be hunting would be from there.' Says Draco.

'Yes it is a bit of a risk but it would benefit you in the long run when you finish your training.'

'That is true. I heard they are going to bring back the Triwizard Tournament next year. Is this true father?' asks Draco.

'In fact that is true. And it is going to be held at Durmstrang as well. So if you two go to Durmstrang for Auror training next year, you could probably have a chance to be in the tournament. It would be a great honor and be another chance to gain experience that could give you an upper hand.'

'Yes it would, but there's that risk of getting killed.' I say.

'There's also the risk of getting killed as an Auror.' States Draco.

'Yes well can we get off the subject of getting killed and death. I'm sure it's a touchy subject for some of us.' Says Lucius as he looks at me in particular which causes Draco to look at me suspiciously.

Shortly after we finish our food, Narcissa and Lucius retire to their bedroom from what I can tell is some well needed sleep, leaving Draco and I alone in the dinning room. When we hear his parents bedroom door close he grabs my hand and leads me to the back verandah, which has been enchanted to keep us warm in the cold winter night.

He turns to me and takes my hands in his. 'My father looked at you when he was talking about death being a touchy subject for some of us. Would you like to elaborate on that?' he asks in a gentle voice.

I pull my hands away from his and walk up to the banister that surrounds the verandah and look out onto the large backyard of the manor, which has various types of peacocks in different colours roaming around amongst the trees and bushes.

'It happened about a year ago. It was about three weeks before the Second Wizarding War. My family were very feared Death Eaters in Australia and everyone knew who they were. They tortured and terrorized people on a daily basis in our home. Sometimes I was one of those people that got tortured as I stood against them.' Draco places his hands on my waist and pulls me against him as if he can tell already that this is going to end badly and that this is hard for me.

'They were very close to Voldemort, but they weren't in the well-known inner circle, but the ones in the inner circle knew who they were. They would have been referred to as "The Crucio's", which in my opinion suited them well as that's the only spell I ever saw them use in my entire life. He came looking for us, as he needed a job to be done. He asked me to do a job for him as well.' I feel Draco's hands tighten on my waist.

'I had a go at him and said I wouldn't do it as I didn't want to work for a coward who hid behind his army. Obviously he got angry with me and he went to use the killing curse on me, but my parents stood in front of me and I changed into a small beetle to get away. As far as he knew and as far as the Death Eaters know, I no longer exist, and my family line is dead.'

A silent tears fall from my eyes and Draco pulls me into him, hugging me tightly. After a couple of minutes he picks me up into his arms and carries me inside and up the stairs to my room, lays me on my bed and takes my shoes off. He goes to leave but I grab his hand. I can't see his face as my eyes are too heavy to stay open, but I feel the bed sink as he lies next to me and puts his arms around me and pulls me into him, and in a matter of seconds I have fallen asleep.


	13. Chapter 13: Christmas Morning

Chapter 13

When I wake up in the morning Draco is gone but I hear the shower in the bathroom that joins onto my room is running, so I suspect Draco is in there. While he is gone I quickly get out of my dress and into some tights, shorts and a singlet, and lie back down on the bed and wait for Draco to get back. I must have fallen asleep while waiting for Draco because when I open my eyes, his right arm is wrapped tightly around me while his left hand plays with my hair.

'Merry Christmas Scar.' Whispers Draco in my ear.

'Merry Christmas Draco. How did you know I was awake?' I ask as I sit up.

'Your breathing changed and I saw your eyes move when you opened them.' He says as he continues to play with my hair.

I look down to the bottom of my bed and see two piles of presents. One pile is wrapped with emerald green paper while the other is wrapped in scarlet red with a few odd presents wrapped in Christmas type paper. I wriggle out of Draco's grip and sit down at the end of my bed to look at the pile that is for me, which is obviously the run with scarlet red wrapping.

'You looked shocked. Why is that?' asks Draco as he joins me.

'This is the first year since I was five that I have gotten Christmas presents.' I confess.

'You're kidding me?' asks Draco as he pulls back to look at me with a shocked expression.

I shake my head. 'I'm not. My parents weren't the nicest people, as you know. I got the occasional present for my birthday, but they were always things to do with dark magic like cursed objects. So I always threw them away or fed it to one of the dragons my parents kept under our house near their vault.'

Draco pulls me into another side hug. 'And I thought I had it sometimes.'

'Well lets not worry about that. Today is meant to be a happy day and that's all in the past and will never be apart of my future.' I say before I grab some of my presents and start to open them.

I get quite a few presents and most of them are from people I didn't expect would get me anything. From Seb I got some gloves to wear while playing quidditch and some nice perfume. From Hermione I got some very interesting books, a journal and some nice quills and inks. From Pansy Parkinson I got a threatening note that made me and Draco laugh for about ten minutes. From Professor McGonagall I got some books on Transfiguration. From Lucius and Narcissa I got a lovely silver necklace with a tree pendant on it and a lovely dark green dress.

I picked up the last package and knew whom it was from straight away as this present had a letter on top addressed to me in scarlet ink. I look at Draco who motions for me to open it. The package is quite large and I suspect Draco got me quite a few things.

I open up the box to see it filled with various different things. Most of the box is taken up by all of my favourite sweets like Berty Botts Every Flavour Beans, Chocolate Frogs, Liquorice Wand, Liquorice Snaps, and there is also a muggle sweet I am quite fond of called Twizzlers, which Draco had obviously gone to a lot of trouble to get as he would have had to have gone to Gringotts to get some muggle money and then go around London to find a store that sold them. I give him a quick hug and kiss on the cheek before turning back to the box to see what else he has gotten for me.

Draco had also gotten me some spell books, some perfume, a lovely silver lace cuff that took up most of my forearm and last put not least Draco had also gotten me a dress. The dress was very simple but stunning at the same time. The dress is made of silk and comes to just above me knee, is strapless and is gathered at the bottom.

'Thank you Draco I love it all.' I say as I hug him again.

'I'm glad you like it then. I love what you got me as well.' He says.

'All I got you as a variety of joke products from Fred and George Weasleys joke shop, you're favourite sweets and a book you've been wanting ever since I met you.'

'And its all that I wanted. I couldn't be happier with what you gave me. And you being here has made my Christmas all that much better.' He says to me before kissing me on the lips. 'I better go and get ready for Christmas lunch which starts in about an hour. I'll see you then.'

I turn towards my bed to clear everything up before I get ready. As I got to pick a dress to wear to lunch I notice that there is another present sitting on my pillow that wasn't there before. I look around my room expecting to see Draco walking away from putting it there but I am alone in my room. When I open the box what ever is inside is wrapped in black tissue paper and on top is a letter addressed to me in scarlet ink.

_I think you should wear this with your dress for lunch,_

_and maybe for later tonight ;)_

_Draco_

I blush at what he has written as I get a slight clue as to what he has put inside. I unwrap the tissue paper and my suspicion is proven correct. Inside the box is a very lacy red matching bra and underwear. I can't help but smirk at this, and decide to wear them to tease him at lunch, along with some other things.


	14. Chapter 14: Lunch, Guests and A Chance

Chapter 14

As I came down the stairs Draco, Lucius and Narcissa were greeting guests and talking amongst each other at the bottom. Narcissa saw me out of the corner of her eye and turned towards me with a huge smile on her face.

'Don't you look stunning.' She says to me.

Draco turns to see what his mother is seeing and just like at the Christmas Ball his mouth drops open. After a couple of seconds he recovers and a smile that makes me feel weak at the knees appears on his face.

The distraction I have caused for Narcissa and Draco has drawn the attention of all the guests and Lucius towards me. Some of the guests shoot me weird looks and whisper amongst themselves, which makes me nervous.

'You look amazing.' Says Draco as he meets me at the bottom of the stairs and takes my hand and brings it to his mouth and kisses it before leaning in towards me 'Though I'm sure you'll look better out of it.'

He pulls back and see he has his signature smirk. I notice that his hair is sleeked back like in some of the photos I saw of him when he was younger and I immediately decide that I don't like it on him at all and prefer it when his hair hangs in his face.

He leads me to the dinning room where everyone is waiting for us to arrive. The guests that were looking at me weirdly before have slight smirks on their faces, and something about it makes me feel like I shouldn't talk to them and that something bad might happen to me if I stick around them.

Draco sees my wariness and grabs my hand under the table and squeezes it lightly and gives me a reassuring smile.

For most of the lunch Draco and I just talk amongst each other while Narcissa and Lucius talk with the guests who don't seem to be paying much attention to us, but I hear our names come up a couple of times, but Narcissa and Lucius never use my full last name. They only call me Scarlet Hunter, and I'm guessing my suspicions about the guests not being people I can trust are right.

'So tell me Draco, how did you and this lovely young lady meet?' asks one of the guests I now know as Crayley.

'Well Scarlet was a transfer student from Australia who moved here with her parents and was offered a p-p-place at Hog-Hogwarts to finish her last year as it was disrupted by recent e-events.' I rub my hand along Draco's inner thigh making him start to stutter and get very excited. His shoulders tense as he tries to compose himself. 'She was sorted into Sl-Slytherin house. At first she re-re-re-refused to get to know me as we got off on the wrong f-f-foot, but we started over and sure our friendship has been a b-b-bit rocky sometimes, but we get through it and I'm sure we will always be g-g-good f-f-fr-friends.'

'Well from the way you looked at her when she came down those stairs I would say that you two are more than friends.' Says a guy whose name I don't know.

'Well wouldn't you look at her like I did if you only ever saw her at school in a uniform and she was as amazingly beautiful as Scarlet is.' Replies Draco without a stutter in his sentence.

'Yes I guess you're right. She is very beautiful.' Says Crayley who looks me up and down in a way which freaks me and makes me want to go and vomit.

Draco once again senses my uneasiness and squeezes my hand under the table again. Shortly after this very awkward conversation for me, the guests leave and we all retire to our rooms to get changed and Lucius and Narcissa take a nap. I change out of the green dress Narcissa and Lucius gave to me and change into dark grey jeans, black singlet and a dark red hoodie, leaving the lacy red bra and underwear that Draco gave me on and decide to go to the very large and extensive library that the Malfoys have in the room across from mine. As my fingers run across the spines of the books I sense that I am not alone anymore but don't turn around to see who has joined me, as I already know whom it is. I hear Draco sit on one of the leather couches in the middle of the room obviously content on watching me and waiting till I'm finished to join him. To tease him I decide to take a very long time and walk extra slowly through the aisles of books and occasionally pick up a book and read a page or two of it. I finally get to the last row of books and decide to not make Draco wait any longer for me to join him. As I walk towards him I can't help but find him very attractive and sexy as he lounges on the couch in a pair of jeans and a tight fitting blue shirt that shows off a lot of his muscles. I sit down next to him and lay me legs across his and lean into his side.

'Draco.'

'Yes?' he asks as he starts to play with my hair, which calms me down.

'There's something else I still need to give you for Christmas.' I say as I look down at my hands.

'What do you want to give me?' he asks.

I look up at him and look straight into his grey eyes.

'A chance.'


	15. Chapter 15: Lust

Chapter 15

For a couple of minutes we sit in silence just looking at each other, with Draco looking at me with a shocked expression as if he can't believe at what I have just said. I find this rather funny but stop myself from laughing at him. He starts to recover and the shock disappears from his face and a huge smile appears on his face and before I know what is happening he is kissing me very passionately and pushes me down so I am lying on the couch. My hands go around his neck pulling him closer to me and slide my tongue along his lower lip making him shiver, which makes me laugh and he uses the moment to shove his tongue into my mouth. At first it's a battle for dominance as we both don't want to lose but in the end I back down and let him take control, but not before I quickly sit up and push him into the corner of the couch and put each of my legs on either side of his and straddle him.

His hands slip underneath my hoodie and singlet and rest on the curves of my hips and he traces patterns on my skin gently with his fingers making me shiver. I slip my hands underneath his shirt and stroke my fingers up and down his chest and stomach along the very prominent muscles making him take in sharp breaths at my touch. I get sick of his shirt being in the way so I grab the bottom of it and pull it over his head in a matter of seconds. I break away from the kiss and stare down at him and I very much like what I see and I start to smirk. Draco laughs at my reaction and starts to kiss my neck earning a gasp and lots of moans from me. I decide to tease him as well and do the same thing but start to slowly move down his chest and occasionally licking and bitting his skin, causing him to throw his head back and moan and tighten his grip on my hips. As I make my way further down his chest and stomach as slow as I can, Draco unzips my hoodie and takes it off.

'You're such a tease.' He says breathlessly.

'And you're no different?' I ask before going back to what I was doing, getting the same reaction I got before.

'Well you're more of a tease than I am.'

I lean up and put my mouth right next to his ear. 'Why don't you do something about it Malfoy?' I whisper in his ear, my breath tickling his neck.

I feel him shiver underneath me and know I had the effect I was going for when I hear him mutter a lot of swear words breathlessly, and feel his jeans move slightly underneath me. I laugh slightly at his reactions, making him make a slight growling noise in the back of his throat. He holds onto me tighter and stands up making me have to but my legs around him. I don't know where he is taking me but when he drops me on a bed and I look to my side to see scarlet sheets I know he has taken us to my room. I hear him mutter some spells at the door, probably so we don't get heard and so no one can walk in on us. Though I am sure that Narcissa and Lucius would leave us be if we didn't put enchantments on the door.

He slowly makes his way towards me, obviously trying to tease me but it doesn't last for very long as after about ten seconds he literally runs at the bed and jumps on top of me pinning my arms above my head. I mentally thank myself for shaving this morning before I got dressed for lunch. He starts kissing my neck and slowly starts to make his way down towards my chest, obviously trying to mimic what I had been doing to him, and by god he was doing an amazing job of it. Every time he nipped my skin with his teeth, my back would arch up and my body would press against his making him smirk into my skin. It didn't take long for him to reach a barrier in his plan as I still had my singlet on. I could see in his eyes what he was going to do and before I could object he tore my singlet in half and threw it on the floor. He turns back to me to see me glaring at him with my arms folded across my chest, which causes him to laugh, but it doesn't last long as lust fills his eyes when they fall on the lacy red bra that he gave me. He continues to kiss and bit my skin as he makes his way down my chest and stomach, but I'm tired of him being the tease. I run my hands down his chest and stomach causing him to moan before I run my fingers just underneath the lining of his jeans causing him to gasp and jump back a little in shock. He looks down with me with lust filled eyes and pulls me so I am sitting on the edge of this bed. He tries to undo the button of my jeans but his hands are shaking too much as I continue to run my fingers along his abs and underneath the lining of his jeans, and kiss and bite him on his chest.

He starts muttering swear words again as he gets frustrated with the stupid little button that is stoping him from getting what he wants most. I push his hands away gently and pull his head down to give him a soft kiss, which calms him down immediately. This time he gets the button undone with ease and slides my jeans off in a matter of seconds. He runs his hands all over my body and occasionally kisses various parts as if he wants to remember every inch of me.

'So I see you listened to my note.' He says with a smirk as he continues to run his hands all over my body.

'Well it seems a shame to put your gift to waste. And you did say I should wear it, so I did.' I say as I unbutton his jeans.

'Well I am v-v-very, very, very, glad t-th-that you d-d-did.' He stutters as he jeans fall to the ground and steps out of them.

In a matter of minutes my bra and underwear join the pile of clothes that now lies on the floor next to my bed.

'You are the most beautiful thing that I have ever seen.' Whispers Draco in my ear as he leans over me.

'How do you know this is what I really look like though? I could have changed what I look like.'

'I highly doubt that. That family tree downstairs shows what you really look like. Metamorphagus or not.' He whispers before he enters me.


	16. Chapter 16: Torture

Chapter 16

When I wake up Draco is gone but I hear voices downstairs so I suspect I slept longer than him and he is downstairs with his parents having breakfast. I take my time in having my shower, doing my hair and getting dressed as I am in no hurry to eat as I ate enough food to last me a day at the lunch yesterday. I decide to wear stockings, high wasted shorts, a black singlet and red hoodie, as I suspect today will be a lounging around day to relax after yesterday.

As I come down the stairs I can tell that the Malfoys aren't the only ones down here as I can hear some familiar voices from yesterdays lunch, and remember that they belong to Crayley and the guests whose name I do not remember who questioned Draco about how he met me and how we knew each other.

As I get closer to the dining room where the conversation is coming from, I can tell it is not a pleasant conversation and that they are having quite a heated argument.

'Ahh there she is.' Purrs Crayley as I come into the dining room. 'The last, true Black to exist.'

My eyes widen in shock. I look around the room at Narcissa, Lucius, and Draco who all have mirrors of shock on their faces that have been there for a while.

'We've been looking for you for a long time.' Purrs the unknown guest.

'Oh yes we have. We heard there was a secret line in the black family dating back to the original members, and here you are.' Says Crayley as he paces around me, before stepping in front of me and brining his face within centimetres of mine. 'And you're probably just like the rest of them. Well like Sirius and Regulus anyway.'

'Betraying their families. Betraying who they are and what they could have been.'

'But you did a much bigger betrayal than what they ever did. Sirius Black just rebelled against his family to piss them off and ruining their reputation in Slytherin by being in Gryffindor. And Regulus was loyal. Until he chickened out. But you, oh you, you did something worse. Your family was one of our greatest weapons being the Crucio's and all. But you, you disobeyed your parents and disobeyed a direct order from the Dark Lord and you're parents, our greatest weapon died because of that. And now… NOW YOU MUST PAY!' Screams Crayley at me before an excruciating pain takes over my body.

My body jerks and cramps as the cruciatus curse does its work. My screams echo off the walls of the room and I see the Malfoys wince at the sound of my pain, and I barely hear Narcissa start to sob. As I roll over as my body jerks with pain I catch a glimpse of his face and see that it is full of pain. And a few silent tears fall from his eyes. I can see he wants so badly to help me but I plead at him with my eyes not to come to my aid as I know he will be tortured worse than I am.

The pain finally stops, but no more than a couple of seconds later the pain comes back but a lot worse. I look down at my skin to see cuts forming on my arms, legs and torso. Blood quickly soaks my clothes and sinks into the carpet beneath me.

Draco:

I'm frozen in place as the girl I love is being tortured because of her last name. Tortured, because she stood up for what she believed in. Her blood curdling screams bounce of the walls and I flinch constantly as each scream hits me with a rocketing force. I wish I could do something, but I'm frozen in place by shock. I would do something but I when she turns her head at me I can see she knows that I want t and pleads at me with her eyes not to. I can't help it when silent tears start to fall from eyes, which come even more when cuts start to appear all over her body, soaking her clothes with blood and staining the carpet as a constant reminder of what has happened here.

I feel a hand on my shoulder and I turn to see my father next to me. 'Go. You don't want to see this. I'll come get you when they are gone and it is over.' Whispers my father in my ear.

I don't have to think twice before I am bolting out of the room and up the stairs to my room to try and hide and escape the horror that is happening downstairs. But he screams still reach my up here, reminding me of what is happening.


	17. Chapter 17: Stay Away From Me

Chapter 17

I don't know when, but sometime during my torture session I passed out. When I wake up my body is sore and stiff and when I try to lift my hand my body screams in pain and I can barely lift it an inch of the floor. I feel gentle hands touch my arm, and I hear someone muttering spells. As my senses get better I realize that it is Narcissa who is healing me. Her voice is slightly shaky from shock, but her spells come out clear.

'Is she awake yet?' I hear someone ask.

'She's conscious, but she's in a lot of pain. She could barely lift her hand an inch off the floor. She's probably won't be moving or opening her eyes for at least a day or two. Take her upstairs to her room and I'll be up in a little while with a potion to help her. Be gentle.'

I feel strong sturdy arms pick me up and cradle me against their chest. I realize quickly that Draco is carrying me and was the person asking if I was awake before. I feel him lay me down on to the soft bed, place a pillow behind my head and put a blanket over me. He starts to stroke my head probably trying to calm me and ease the pain but at the moment I can barely feel a thing.

I can tell when Narcissa arrives as he stops stroking my head, and I feel something being pressed against my lips and a liquid trickle down my throat. I can tell that it is working as the pain starts to ease a tiny bit every couple of minutes.

'You should go get some sleep Draco.'

'But I want to stay with her.'

'I know, but its not doing you any good seeing her like this. Go get some sleep and do some work for school. I'll come get you when she is awake and well.'

'Mother-'

'Now Draco.' Says Narcissa sternly.

I can tell Draco isn't happy with what he is being told to do as he sighs loudly, but he knows his mother is right. Whatever state I'm in and whatever he saw, it's not going to do him any good right now.

I don't know how much time has passed, but when I finally come completely conscious and can move without pain I know I have been out for a couple of days. I look around my room to see that I am alone, so I take the opportunity to take what I can tell is a well-needed shower. I am still wearing the clothes that I got tortured in that are soaked with blood and as soon as I take them off I set them on fire with my wand and discard of them. As soon as I get under the water of the shower, the water running off me turns red from the dried blood on my skin. My hair is the worst as it is soaked with most of the blood. It takes me about fifteen minutes just to clean my hair of all the blood that is in it. I take another fifteen minutes just to make sure my skin is smooth and free of any blood that is left. When I come out of the bathroom dressed in dark grey jeans, grey singlet and a blue hoodie I see Narcissa leaving my room.

'Nice to see that you're awake. We're having dinner downstairs now if you would like to join us.' She says before leaving me alone.

I go to head down the stairs and I get halfway down before anger takes over my body when I see the Malfoys having dinner. As much as I love them, none of them did anything to stop what happened to me. They stood back and let it all happen to me. They knew what would happen when I came into that room and none of them tried to stop it.

'Scaerlet?'

I look up to see Draco looking at me from the bottom of the stairs. He starts to run towards me but I stick my right hand out as a barrier and step backwards. He stops in his tracks and looks at me with a confused look. I see Narcissa and Lucius looking at us from the dining room doorway with worried looks.

'What's wrong Scarlet?' asks Draco taking a step towards me.

'Don't come near me.' I say stepping back a couple of steps.

'Are you ok?' he asks taking another step towards me reaching his hand out to me.

'I said don't come near me.' I say before bolting up the rest of the stairs, back to my room and locking my door in so many ways that it would take Draco a long time to get through it.

I quickly pack all my things with a flick of my wand, and with another flick I send them off to a place I know they will be safe when I arrive. I hear Draco knocking on my door. I turn towards it, remove the enchantments and push the door open and run down the stairs as fast as I can. I run towards the front door, pull it open as fast as I can. Draco grabs onto my arm and tries to pull me inside but I punch him in the face and push him away, and turn into a bird and fly away, leaving the manor, Narcissa, Lucius and Draco behind me.


	18. Chapter 18: The End For Now

Chapter 18

Draco:

As she flew away I sank to my knees in the doorway and silent tears fell from my eyes. I didn't bother calling out to her, as I knew she wouldn't come back. She hated me probably because I knew what was going to happen to her when she set foot in that room and I didn't do a thing to stop it from happening. I don't know how long I sit in the doorway, looking out to where she disappeared for, but when my mother comes and shakes me out of my trance, its pitch black outside and very close to midnight.

I drag myself up the stairs and as soon as I get to my room I lock the door and punch the closest thing I can find which is the wall. My hand doesn't break, but I can tell I have done a bit of damage and will have to get it fixed later, but at the moment I don't care.

For the next couple of hours I throw random objects around the room. I don't pay attention to what I pick up and throw until I go to grab a little green box on my pillow. Something about it tells me not to throw it. I sit down on my bed and put the small box in front of me. The label attached it has my name written on it in green ink. I recognise the writing immediately and rip the lid off the box. Inside the box sits a simple silver ring with a snake pattern carved into it. I realize Scarlet must have gotten it for me as another Christmas present, and seeing as I never returned to my room after she got tortured I never saw it until now. I see more writing on the other side of the label.

_For the one and true 'Slytherin Prince'_

I can't help but laugh despite everything that has happened in the past few days. I slip the ring onto one of the fingers of my right hand and it fits perfectly. At least I will always have something to remind me of her if I never see her again.

The next few days went past quickly and before I knew it I was back at Hogwarts for second part of my last and final year here. The only thing that was different this time, was that Scarlet was nowhere to be seen and no one had seen her on the train, and none of her belongings were at the bottom of her bed in her dormitory. The next day in classes there was always an empty seat where she use to sit, but now it is deserted.

Hermione and Ginny constantly eyed me suspiciously in class as they both knew about Scarlet and I, and I guess they were shocked to see me come back to school on my own and her no where to be seen.

Every seemed to notice Scarlets disappearance, but they blew it off for a family reason or she was sick, but I was the only one who knew what really happened. I started to grow use to Scarlets absence, but the haunting feeling that some Death Eaters had caught up with her played continuously in the back of my mind. Was she dead? Was she alive? No one seemed to know, and none of the teachers seemed worried. I regularly asked Professor McGonagall about it, and she would never reply. But I could tell she knew something about it.

It was early March and the temperature was starting to get slightly warmer as the snow and cold winds died down. I was nearly half asleep in Charms when the door opened letting in some of the cooler air from the hallways. I didn't look up to see who it was. Probably just some first year who was sent to deliver a message.

'Ahh, Welcome back Miss Black. Please take a seat.'

My head shot up immediately and sure enough standing no more that six feet away from me in the flesh was Scarlet. Her back was to me, but I was dead sure it was her, mainly because no one else at Hogwarts or in our year had the last name Black. When she turned to take her seat I was relieved to see that she looked very healthy and unharmed. As she walked past me I lightly grabbed her hand, but as soon as I touched it she yanked it out of my reach and continued to walk away from me up to a seat next to Hermione without looking back at me.

Throughout the rest of the class I looked at her, but she didn't even look in my direction. It was almost like I didn't exist to her anymore. The phrase 'you are dead to me' came to mind as she continued to ignore me. I tried to talk to her when class ended and her and Hermione headed towards the great hall for lunch but she continued to ignore me. She went so far to ignore me that she ditched the Slytherin table completely and joined Hermione at the Gryffindor table, which earned her some weird glances, but everyone knew that she didn't have a grudge against Gryffindors and that she was quite close with Hermione and Ginny. So her sitting with them wasn't that strange.

For weeks she continued up the ignoring me act, and acting like I didn't exist and the year was running out. In a few short weeks we would be finishing our N.E. and would be leaving Hogwarts for the last time. And the last time I would probably see her and be able to talk to her.

'Mr Malfoy, I see you have expressed a great deal of interest in being an Auror.' Says Professor McGonagal as I sit in front of her desk.

'Yes. If possible I would love to do it when I finish school.'

'Well you're grades are very good and, the ministry has asked me to talk to you about the exchange program for a year at Durmstrang for your first year of Auror training. Would you be interested in going?'

'Would it extend my training time?' I ask.

'No it would not. You wouldn't have to take your N.E. again so you would just be attending classes that would help you with training, doing the occasional homework and assignments and learning as much as you can. You will have some Auror learning to do while you're there but that's about it. It would just be like your final year, just no exams at the end to worry about.'

'I would like to go then.'

'Excellent Mr Malfoy, I shall inform them of you're decision and you're parents will be sent some information. You are free to go.'

As I walk away from Professor McGonagalls office I silently hope that Scarlet takes the same opportunity as she would probably be one of the people at the top of that list to be offered that program. As I walk into Potions, Scarlet is being told to see Professor McGonagall and I can't help but smile. Hopefully I can get another year to make things right.


	19. Story News and Updates

Hey guys. Just a little update to let you guys know I am going to be rewriting this story again, making it a bit longer and changing a few things. I'm mainly doing this because I was in my second last year of high school at the time, and its pretty obvious I rushed into it and didn't plan a lot of it out, and could have made the story fuller and longer in terms of content.

I am in the process of planning and outlining everything as we speak, so if there's any things you guys would like to see in it, let me know, and I shall try and find a way to squeeze it in. Or you can let me know if there are things you want changed from the first time to the second time.


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